Trump lashes out at ’Wacky Omarosa’ over book, tapes

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at Omarosa Manigault Newman Monday, saying the former White House adviser — who is promoting a tell-all book and airing secret audio recordings —“got fired for the last time.”

On Twitter, Trump labels Manigault Newman “wacky” and says Kelly called her a “loser & nothing but problems.” He adds: “I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me - until she got fired!”

Trump’s pushback comes after Manigault Newman released another audio recording Monday. Aired on NBC’s “Today” show, it is purportedly an excerpt of a phone conversation between Trump and Manigault Newman after she was fired from the White House. It appears to show Trump expressing surprise, saying “nobody even told me about it.”

On Sunday, Manigault Newman told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that she surreptitiously recorded a number of conversations in the White House for her own protection. The show aired portions of a recording of her firing by chief of staff John Kelly in the high-security Situation Room.

Critics have denounced the recordings as a serious breach of ethics and security. The voice on the recording released Monday appears to be Trump’s. The White House has not denied it, but The Associated Press has not independently verified it’s Trump. The AP has independently listened to the recording with Kelly.

Trump acknowledged Monday that the occupant of the Oval Office should perhaps not engage in a public war of words with an ex-employee, saying he knows “it’s “not presidential” to take on “a lowlife like Omarosa.” But he added: “this is a modern day form of communication and I know the Fake News Media will be working overtime to make even Wacky Omarosa look legitimate as possible. Sorry!”

While the latest recording appears to show Trump was unaware of her firing, Manigault Newman said on “Today” that Trump may have instructed Kelly to do it. She offered no evidence.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Monday: “I’m not going to get into the tick-tock of who knew what when, but the president makes the decisions.”

Manigault Newman, whose book is out this week, suggested there was more to come: “There’s a lot of very corrupt things happening in the White House and I am going to blow the whistle on a lot of them.”